DeGrasse Tyson keeps job - World News - Castanet.net

DeGrasse Tyson keeps job

The Canadian Press -
Jul 27, 2019 / 4:14 pm | Story:
262261



Photo: The Canadian Press



Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will keep his job as head of the Hayden Planetarium at New York's American Museum of Natural History after the museum concluded its investigation into sexual misconduct accusations against him.

A museum spokesman said in a statement Thursday that based on the results of the investigation, Tyson "remains an employee and director of the Hayden Planetarium."

The statement said museum officials would not comment further "because this is a confidential personnel matter."

Tyson was accused of behaving inappropriately with two women in an article published in November on the website Patheos.

In one episode from 2009, Katelyn Allers, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, said Tyson put his hand under the shoulder part of her dress while exploring her tattoo of the solar system to see if it included Pluto. Allers said the behaviour was "creepy."

The second case involved Ashley Watson, who quit her job as an assistant for Tyson on the Fox TV show "Cosmos" last year after what she said was inappropriate behaviour on his part.

In one instance, Watson said Tyson invited her into his apartment and told her he wanted to hug her but if he did he'd "just want more."

Tyson responded to the allegations in a December Facebook post in which denied acting wrongly.

Fox Broadcasting and National Geographic cleared Tyson to return to the air on his television series "StarTalk" and "Cosmos" earlier this year after investigating the same allegations.

A representative for Tyson did not respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

Messages seeking comment were sent to Allers and Watson.









US teens confess to killing

The Canadian Press -
Jul 27, 2019 / 7:43 am | Story:
262240


Photo: The Canadian Press

In this photo released by Carabinieri, is portrayed officer Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, who was stabbed to death in Rome early Friday, July 26, 2019. Italian police said Saturday that two 19-year-old American tourists have confessed to fatally stabbing the Italian paramilitary policeman who was investigating the theft of a bag with a cellphone.



Italian police said Saturday that two 19-year-old American tourists have confessed in the fatal stabbing of an Italian paramilitary policeman who was investigating the theft of a bag.

In a statement, Carabinieri officers investigating the death early Friday of officer Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, said the American men were detained for alleged murder and attempted extortion after being questioned overnight. They were taken to a Rome jail as the investigation continues. Italian authorities have not released their names.

The two had snatched the bag of a drug dealer in Rome after the man apparently gave them "a different substance" instead of cocaine, according to an Italian investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity since the probe was ongoing.

The Carabinieri said the Americans demanded a 100-euro ($112) ransom and a gram of cocaine to return the bag. The alleged dealer called police, saying he had arranged a meeting with the thieves to get his bag and cellphone back. Police says there was a scuffle at the rendezvous site and the policeman was stabbed eight times, dying shortly afterward in the hospital.

The Carabinieri said video surveillance cameras and witnesses allowed them to quickly identify the two Americans and find them in a hotel near the scene of the slaying. Police said the two Americans were "ready to leave" Italy when they were found.

In a search of their hotel room, the Carabinieri said they found a long knife, possibly the one used to attack Cerciello Rega. Police said the knife had been hidden behind a panel in the room's ceiling. Police also said they found clothes the two apparently were wearing during the attack.

The Carabinieri statement said the two Americans admitted responsibility after being questioned by prosecutors and faced with "hard evidence."

It was not known if the Americans had an Italian lawyer.

Carabinieri Lt. Col. Orazio Ianniello said Saturday the suspects weren't being immediately named because they have no criminal records.








8 dead, 60 hurt in quakes

The Canadian Press -
Jul 27, 2019 / 7:04 am | Story:
262236


Photo: The Canadian Press

Rubble are seen inside a damaged house in Itbayat town, Batanes islands, northern Philippines after a strong earthquake struck on Saturday July 27, 2019. Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday. 



Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday, killing at least eight people, injuring about 60 and damaging ancestral houses famous among tourists.

The quakes collapsed homes of stone and wood and roused residents from sleep, said Roldan Esdicul, who heads the Batanes provincial disaster-response office. Footage showed people clearing boulder-size stone bricks to pull out one body from the rubble.

"Our bed and everything were swaying from side to side like a hammock," Esdicul told The Associated Press by cellphone from Basco town, the provincial capital. "We all ran out to safety."

On hard-hit Itbayat island, school teacher Agnes Salengua-Nico said she and her husband woke up horrified with the ground shaking and a cabinet crashing to the floor. Their house withstood the shaking but others in the neighbourhood crumbled, pinning residents inside, she said.

"We're out now in the farm with our three pigs because we're very, very scared of the aftershocks," she told AP by phone, her voice trembling shortly after the ground shook again.

More than 2,000 residents of Itbayat — nearly all of the island's population of mostly fishermen — were advised not to return to their homes and stay in the town plaza as successive aftershocks shook the region, Esdicul said.

Only one villager remained missing in the quake's aftermath, he said.

Army troops and additional doctors later flew in after Itbayat's airport runway was declared safe.

The quakes measured 5.4 and 5.9 at relatively shallow depths, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. A third quake with a magnitude of 5.8 struck at sea west of Batanes later Saturday, it said.

Esdicul said he was already in his office with the provincial governor when the second and more powerful quake struck about three hours after the first shock. "We have to hold on because you can't stand or walk. It was that strong," he said.

The initial quake severely cracked the bell tower of the island's old limestone church, the 19th-century Santa Maria de Mayan, a popular tourist attraction. The tower crumbled down when the second temblor hit the island, he said.

A one-story hospital was damaged, prompting patients to be evacuated and brought out in the open with dozens of injured quake victims. Some were later crammed into a basketball court with a roof due to heavy rains, Esdicul said.

Seven of those injured who sustained serious fractures were airlifted out of Itbayat to a bigger provincial hospital, he said.








Trump gets wall funding

The Canadian Press -
Jul 26, 2019 / 6:00 pm | Story:
262224


AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File



The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Trump administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.

The court's five conservative justices gave the administration the greenlight to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defence Department money. Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded. The court's four liberal justices wouldn't have allowed construction to start.

The justices' decision to lift the freeze on the money allows President Donald Trump to make progress on a major 2016 campaign promise heading into his race for a second term. Trump tweeted after the announcement: "Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!"

The Supreme Court's action reverses the decision of a trial court, which initially froze the funds in May, and an appeals court, which kept that freeze in place earlier this month. The freeze had prevented the government from tapping approximately $2.5 billion in Defence Department money to replace existing sections of barrier in Arizona, California and New Mexico with more robust fencing.

The case the Supreme Court ruled in began after the 35-day partial government shutdown that started in December of last year. Trump ended the shutdown in February after Congress gave him approximately $1.4 billion in border wall funding. But the amount was far less than the $5.7 billion he was seeking, and Trump then declared a national emergency to take cash from other government accounts to use to construct sections of wall.

The money Trump identified includes $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion in Defence Department money and $600 million from the Treasury Department's asset forfeiture fund.

The case before the Supreme Court involved just the $2.5 billion in Defence Department funds, which the administration says will be used to construct more than 100 miles (160 kilometres) of fencing. One project would replace 46 miles (74 kilometres) of barrier in New Mexico for $789 million. Another would replace 63 miles (101 kilometres) in Arizona for $646 million. The other two projects in California and Arizona are smaller.

The other funds were not at issue in the case. The Treasury Department funds have so far survived legal challenges, and Customs and Border Protection has earmarked the money for work in Texas' Rio Grande Valley but has not yet awarded contracts. Transfer of the $3.6 billion in military construction funds is awaiting approval from the defence secretary.

The lawsuit at the Supreme Court was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition. The justices who lifted the freeze on the money did not give a lengthy explanation for their decision. But they said among the reasons they were doing so was that the government had made a "sufficient showing at this stage" that those bringing the lawsuit don't have a right to challenge the decision to use the money.

Alexei Woltornist, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement, "We are pleased that the Supreme Court recognized that the lower courts should not have halted construction of walls on the southern border. We will continue to vigorously defend the Administration's efforts to protect our Nation."

ACLU lawyer Dror Ladin said after the court's announcement that the fight "is not over." The case will continue, but the Supreme Court's decision suggests an ultimate victory for the ACLU is unlikely. Even if the ACLU were to win, fencing will have already been built.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would not have allowed construction to begin. Justice Stephen Breyer said he would have allowed the government to finalize the contracts for the segments but not begin construction while the lawsuit proceeded. The administration had argued that if it wasn't able to finalize the contracts by Sept. 30, then it would lose the ability to use the funds. The administration had asked for a decision quickly.

The Supreme Court is on break for the summer but does act on certain pressing items.








Grasshoppers swarm Vegas

The Canadian Press -
Jul 26, 2019 / 10:51 am | Story:
262164


Photo: Twitter



A migration of mild-mannered grasshoppers sweeping through the Las Vegas area is being attributed to wet weather several months ago.

Nevada state entomologist Jeff Knight told reporters on Thursday the number of adult pallid-winged grasshoppers travelling north to central Nevada is unusual but not unprecedented, and poses no danger.

Knight says the insects don't carry disease, don't bite, and probably won't damage anybody's yard before they're gone in a few weeks.

He says they're usually attracted to ultraviolet light sources.

Knight recalls several similar migrations in his more than 30 years at the state Department of Agriculture, including one about six or seven years ago.

This year, the Las Vegas area recorded more rain in six months than the annual average of just under 4.2 inches (10.7 centimetres) per year.


This is... interesting 😨 pic.twitter.com/jbjD237gx7
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) July 26, 2019









Swift avoids burglary

The Canadian Press -
Jul 26, 2019 / 8:44 am | Story:
262152


Photo: The Canadian Press

In this July 10, 2019 file photograph, singer Taylor Swift performs at Amazon Music's Prime Day concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.



An Iowa man police say came to Rhode Island with a backpack full of burglary tools to visit Taylor Swift has been held without bail pending a competency hearing.

The Sun of Westerly reports 32-year-old David Page Liddle was held at a court hearing Thursday after authorities said there were concerns he was a flight risk and had previously been accused of stalking the singer.

He had been held on $10,000 bail after his arrest July 19 not far from Swift's beachfront mansion.

The Des Moines man is charged with possession of burglary tools and possession of a weapon other than a firearm.

Police Chief Shawn Lacey says Liddle told officers he was looking to "catch up" with Swift and knew her personally.

Liddle's public defender had no comment.








16 Marines arrested

The Canadian Press -
Jul 26, 2019 / 6:50 am | Story:
262148


Photo: The Canadian Press



An investigation into Marines accused of helping smuggle migrants into the United States led to the arrest Thursday of 16 of their fellow Marines at California's Camp Pendleton, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a dramatic move aimed at sending a message, authorities made the arrests as the Marines gathered in formation with their battalion.

None of the 16 Marines were involved in helping enforce border security, the Marine Corps said in a news release. They are accused of crimes ranging from migrant smuggling to drug-related offences.

Officials could not immediately be reached for additional details.

The arrests came weeks after two Marines were arrested by a Border Patrol agent on suspicion of transporting three Mexicans on the promise of money after they crossed illegally into the United States.

The military said the investigation helped authorities identify the 16 Marines arrested at the largest Marine Corps' base on the West Coast, about 55 miles from San Diego's border with Mexico.

Retired Marine Lt. Col. Gary Barthel called it a "kind of black eye for the Marine Corps" and said it was important the military show criminal behaviour will not be tolerated.

"Obviously I think it looks bad whenever you have the military that is helping protect the border and then you've got military people smuggling," said Barthel, an attorney at the Military Law Center in Carlsbad, north of San Diego.

Marines and other U.S. troops were brought in last year to help reinforce the border by installing razor wire on top of existing barriers, among other things. Troops are barred from arresting migrants.

All 16 were junior enlisted Marines. Barthel said smugglers may have targeted young troops who could be vulnerable to being enticed by fast money.

Border Patrol agents over the years have routinely caught migrants in the country illegally walking onto Camp Pendleton or floating in skiffs off the coast nearby. Authorities said the base, cut by Interstate 5 leading to Los Angeles, sits along a well-traversed route used by migrant smugglers.

Officials from 1st Marine Division worked alongside the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the investigation that started after the July 3 arrests of two Marines, who were charged in federal court with migrant smuggling. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent stopped Lance Cpl. Byron Darnell Law II and Lance Cpl. David Javier Salazar-Quintero about 7 miles north of the border after being alerted by other agents that a vehicle similar to theirs was suspected of picking up migrants who came into the country illegally, according to the federal complaint.

Three migrants were found in the backseat of a black BMW driven by Law, investigators say. Both Marines are riflemen assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton.

Law told the agent that Salazar asked if he was interested in earning $1,000 picking up an "illegal alien."

Salazar told authorities that Law introduced him to a man who "recruited" him to help smuggle in migrants, according to court documents. Salazar said he had gone out to pick up migrants on four separate occasions but was never paid.








A 'grotesque low'

The Canadian Press -
Jul 26, 2019 / 6:49 am | Story:
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Photo: The Canadian Press



George Takei says U.S. migrant detention policies reached depths beyond what Japanese-Americans faced during their World War II internment.

Takei, interned as a child, said his family and others were kept together when they were sent to American camps.

In contrast, the "Star Trek" actor said, some immigrant babies and children were separated and moved great distances from their parents.

The Los Angeles-born Takei called it inhumane and a "grotesque low."

Takei, who stars in a new horror-drama series set in a Japanese-American internment camp, made his comments to a TV critics' meeting Thursday.

He said he hopes the show, AMC's "The Terror: Infamy," debuting Aug. 12, inspires people to fight injustice in America and elsewhere, including in China with its reeducation camps for Uighur Muslims.








Missing girl's remains found

The Canadian Press -
Jul 25, 2019 / 12:00 pm | Story:
262096


Photo: Police photo



The remains of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared in 1984 after performing at a Christmas holiday concert have been found by construction workers in Colorado, police said Thursday.

Greeley police Sgt. Joe Tymkowych said the remains were identified as those of Jonelle Matthews, who was last seen being dropped off at her home by a friend and a friend's father, The Greeley Tribune reported .

No one was ever arrested following her disappearance on Dec. 20, 1984. Jonelle had performed with a middle school honour choir shortly before she disappeared, authorities said.

The Tribune reported Wednesday that workers were constructing a new pipeline in rural Weld County when they discovered bones Tuesday night. Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said his deputies were treating the recovery of the remains as a homicide investigation.

Tymkowych did not immediately return telephone calls and it was not clear how authorities were able to identify the remains as those of the young girl so quickly.

"We're still chasing down leads," Tymkowych told the newspaper of the investigation into the girl's disappearance and death.

Greeley is about 50 miles north of Denver. The location of the construction site where the remains were found is along a rural route in Weld County.

Police told the Tribune last December that they had reopened the case and were reviewing old interviews and conducting new ones.








Kid's wild airport ride

The Canadian Press -
Jul 25, 2019 / 11:39 am | Story:
262093



Dramatic video shows a toddler who climbed onto an airport conveyor belt scrambling over suitcases during his wild ride down the luggage chute.

Edith Vega said her 2-year-old son Lorenzo hopped onto the belt when she briefly set him down to print boarding passes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday.

Security video later released by the airport shows some of what happened next.

One camera recorded Lorenzo being pulled through a rubber curtain, beyond the reach of his mother and an airport worker. Video then shows him crawling over bags, trying to avoid being pulled through a screening machine. He pops out on the other side, only to tumble down into another room where startled security workers give him hugs.

Authorities said his hand was broken.








Epstein found injured in cell

The Canadian Press -
Jul 25, 2019 / 8:30 am | Story:
262076


Photo: The Canadian Press

This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein.



Wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was found injured on the floor of his cell early this week in the federal jail where he is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, a person familiar with the episode told The Associated Press on Thursday.

It wasn't clear whether bruising on the 66-year-old's neck was self-inflicted or from an assault, said the person, who wasn't authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Epstein was treated and remains in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.

There was no immediate response from jail officials and one of Epstein's lawyers.

The Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Epstein is being held, is famous for stringent security and high-profile prisoners, which have included terrorists, Wall Street schemers and, until recently, the Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Epstein has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s. He has pleaded not guilty.

A judge denied bail to Epstein after a hearing last week, ruling that he might flee the country if he was released. The judge also said Epstein posed a danger to the public because of his "uncontrollable" urges to engage in sexual conduct with underage girls.

Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in a deal that ended a federal investigation involving many teenage girls who said they had been sexually abused.

He was sentenced to 13 months in jail but was allowed to leave the county stockade on most days and spend the day in his private office. After his release, he registered as a sex offender.

Federal prosecutors in New York reopened the probe after investigative reports in the Miami Herald sparked outrage over the original plea bargain.

Epstein was indicted on new federal charges this month. Epstein's lawyers say he hasn't had any illicit contact with underage girls since serving his jail sentence in Florida. They also say the current charges are improper because the federal government is reneging on the deal not to prosecute him.

U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resigned after coming under renewed criticism for overseeing that deal when he was U.S. attorney in Miami.








New PM new Brexit deal?

The Canadian Press -
Jul 25, 2019 / 8:28 am | Story:
262075


Photo: The Canadian Press

Britain's newly appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, holds his first Cabinet meeting, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid and Secretary for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd, right, at Downing Street in London, Thursday July 25, 2019.



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the European Union on Thursday to rethink its refusal to renegotiate the Brexit deal, setting himself on a collision course with both the bloc and his own lawmakers over his vow to leave the EU by Oct. 31.

Addressing a rowdy session of Parliament for the first time since becoming prime minister a day earlier, Johnson pledged to deliver Brexit and a "broader and bolder future."

He was heckled loudly by an opposition determined to thwart him, with Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissing Johnson's "arm-waving bluster."

Rejecting the Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May, Johnson insisted that while he wanted a deal, it could only happen if the EU budged, especially on an insurance policy for the Irish border that has been rejected by U.K. lawmakers.

"I hope that the EU will be equally ready and that they will rethink their current refusal to make any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement," he told Parliament during the more than two-hour session. "If they do not, we will, of course, have to leave — the U.K. — without an agreement."

The EU repeated, for the umpteenth time, its insistence that it will not renegotiate the agreement on the terms of Britain's departure that it struck with May.

"The European Union's position remains unchanged. ... We will not reopen the withdrawal agreement," said European Commission chief spokeswoman Mina Andreeva.

Without a divorce deal, Britain faces a chaotic Brexit that economists warn would disrupt trade by imposing tariffs and customs checks between Britain and the bloc. They say that could send the value of the pound plummeting and plunge the U.K. into recession.

Nonetheless Johnson, who won an election of Conservative members to replace May as party leader and prime minister, has vowed to complete Brexit and silence "the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters" who believe it can't be done.

But details remain scarce about how Johnson's government would alleviate the economic shock if Britain crashed out of the EU's huge free-trading bloc, ripping up decades of agreements regulating everything from aviation to drugs to telecommunications.

Johnson has less than 100 days to make good on his promise to deliver Brexit by Oct. 31. Yet Britain will struggle to get the bloc's full attention during August, a sleepy holiday period in much of Europe, and the U.K. Parliament is due to start a six-week summer break on Friday.

He said he was ready to talk to EU leaders "whenever they are ready to do so," and also promised to "turbo-charge" planning for a no-deal exit, with millions more allocated to a public information campaign for citizens and businesses.

Earlier Thursday, Johnson also held the first meeting of his new Cabinet, which he has filled with loyal Brexit supporters. They include Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Treasury chief Sajid Javid, Home Secretary Priti Patel and House of Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg. Many of them worked with Johnson in the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the EU, as did much of Johnson's new backroom staff.

Despite the new lineup, he faces the same problems that bedeviled May: heading a government without a parliamentary majority and with most lawmakers opposed to leaving the EU without a divorce deal.

Lawmakers who oppose a no-deal Brexit — including some of the Conservative ministers in May's government who were swept away by Johnson — are vowing to put up a fight when Parliament returns from its break in September.

"This House will stop the prime minister," said Scottish National Party lawmaker Ian Blackford, who branded a no-deal Brexit "economic madness."

It's almost certain that opposition lawmakers will try to topple Johnson's government in a vote of no-confidence in September. There also is rising speculation that Johnson could call an early fall election in hopes of gaining a majority in Parliament for his plans.

The country's next scheduled election is not until 2022, and Johnson says his priority is Brexit, not an early poll — but he hasn't ruled one out.

In the meantime, Johnson must prove he can deliver on his optimistic pronouncements.

Dozens of lawmakers in Parliament grilled him on details: How would he uphold the government's promise to keep the border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland free of customs checks? How would he enforce his promise that all 3 million EU citizens living in Britain can stay?

He batted them all away, offering instead the blustering optimism that have made him one of Britain's most divisive politicians.

"There is every chance that in 2050 ... we will be able to look back on this extraordinary period as the start of a new golden age for our United Kingdom," he said.

Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the country was worried that "the new prime minister overestimates himself."

"He says he has pluck, nerve and ambition," Corbyn said. "Our country does not need arm-waving bluster but competence, seriousness and, after a decade of division policies for the few, to focus on the interests of the many."





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